Graft situation is grim, Xi warns party's anti-corruption commission
As president issues a rallying cry to party, warning that all ‘dirty hands’ will be caught, new details emerge of investigation into top PLA officer
President Xi Jinping has called for a redoubling of efforts to root out corruption, describing the situation as "grim" and "a disease that calls for strong medicine".
Speaking at the plenary session of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection yesterday, Xi, who is also the party chief, cited a Chinese idiom: "It takes courage, like a man who severs his snake-bitten hand to save his life.
"We should not allow the [supervision and monitoring] system to become a paper tiger or scarecrow."
Xi's rallying call came on the same day that a news report revealed new details of a long-standing graft case involving the PLA's disgraced deputy logistics chief, Gu Junshan .
Fighting graft has been a centerpiece of Xi's first year in office, as he has repeatedly reiterated that corruption is a major threat to the party's legitimacy.
The two-day plenary meeting closed yesterday after a banner year during which graft-busters disciplined more than 180,000 officials, 13 per cent more than the year before, the commission's annual report said last week.